Netflix edges past the BBC as UK viewers’ first choice

For the first time, a streaming service has overtaken the BBC as the place UK viewers say they turn to first. In Ofcom’s annual Media Nations report, published this week, Netflix was named first choice by 26% of viewers, just ahead of the BBC on 25% and ITV on 15%.

The measure is about instinct, not hours. Ofcom asked viewers which service they reach for first, and for decades the answer in Britain was overwhelmingly the BBC.

A single percentage point is not a rout, but it is a milestone. The corporation has anchored British viewing for generations, and being pipped by a Californian subscription service, however narrowly, marks a shift the BBC has long seen coming and long dreaded.

The wider numbers tell the same story more slowly. Around 70% of Britons watched traditional broadcasters for at least 15 minutes a week in 2025, down from 73% the year before and 78% in 2022, a gentle but unmistakable decline.

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The broadcasters are not standing still. Their own streaming apps, including iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 Streaming, and 5, grew 9% year on year, as viewers who left the schedule followed the same programmes onto on-demand.

Subscription streaming, meanwhile, looks close to saturated. Services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video now reach roughly 70% of British homes, a figure that has largely stopped climbing.

The plateau matters for what comes next. With most households that will pay for streaming already paying, growth now has to come from taking time off rivals rather than signing up newcomers.

The more striking mover is YouTube. Viewing of the Google-owned platform on actual television sets has doubled, to 19 minutes a day per person, up from nine minutes in 2022.

That growth is no longer confined to the young. Among Britons aged 75 and over, YouTube’s weekly reach rose to 33% in 2025 from 28% in 2022, a sign the platform has crept well beyond its digital-native base.

The generational pattern is the report’s throughline. Younger viewers have rebuilt their watching around on-demand and video platforms, and each year a little more of the older audience follows them there.

ITV, on 15%, sits some way behind both. The contest at the top is really between one public broadcaster and one global streamer, rather than a broad field of rivals.

Being first choice is not the same as being most watched, either. Traditional broadcasters still fill more total viewing hours than any single streamer, even as the habit of reaching for them first quietly erodes.

For the BBC, the report arrives at an awkward moment. The corporation is defending the licence fee and preparing for charter renewal, and a headline saying Netflix has passed it will make neither conversation easier.

The funding question sits beneath the viewing one. The licence fee is levied on the assumption that the BBC is a near-universal habit, and a ranking that now places it second hands its critics a fresh line of attack.

The competitive pressure is not only about attention. Netflix faces its own frictions in Europe, including a consumer lawsuit in the Netherlands over subscription price rises, a reminder that scale brings scrutiny.

Britain’s public broadcasters have weathered the streaming era better than many feared. Public-service programming still draws large crowds for live events and news, and the collapse once predicted for traditional UK television has looked more like slow erosion than a cliff.

Still, the direction is not in doubt. Each edition of Media Nations records the same drift, younger viewers leading and older ones following, from the schedule to the app and from broadcast to the feed.

What the report cannot say is where the line settles. Netflix’s one-point lead could widen or reverse next year, but the more durable finding is that “first choice” is now a contest the BBC has to win rather than a title it holds by default.